Identity Crisis(90)

‘Honestly, I wasn’t paying any attention, Garrett. I was too busy thinking about talking to the press.’

‘Fuck!’ Garrett ran a hand through his hair and yanked Kendra close to him, ignoring her little gasp of surprise. He returned his attention to the security man. ‘Both of the bedrooms look out onto the back yard. He must have come in from there.’

‘If there had been someone there,’ the man said, ‘we would have noticed. The back is being patrolled as well as the front. I don’t see how anyone could have sneaked past us. But frankly, that guestroom window’s very vulnerable. Easiest thing in the world to shimmy up that trellis.’

‘And you’re just now thinking about that?’ Garrett lost it. ‘Ellis told me you were the best. Tess could have been kidnapped or killed, and you would have never known the difference.’

‘I’m sorry,’ the man managed before Garrett ploughed on.

‘Fat lot of good that does!’ He was just settling into rant mode when Kendra suddenly grabbed his arm in a bruising grip and shushed him.

‘Shut up, both of you! Listen!’ she hissed. ‘Someone’s out there.’

‘Probably just a deer,’ Garrett said. ‘They come up all the –’

Then he heard it, the crack of a twig, the brush of a limb, and what sounded like soft footfalls. Holding his breath, he squinted into the woods, but it was full night and there was no moonlight. Even the ambient light of the house was blocked out by the steep undulation of the hill leading to the field where they sat.

For a second there was silence. They both held their breath, and Gabe, on the speaker phone, must have been holding his too. Kendra slid back on her bottom and fumbled in the backpack that had contained the blankets and snacks. Carefully, as quietly as she could, she pulled out a flashlight, and when the next crackle of undergrowth broke the silence, she flicked it on. The sound that escaped her throat was one of rage mixed with fear. Adrenaline shot up Garrett’s spine and felt like it would explode through the top of his head.

For a split second, in the periphery of the circle of light, there was something running away, and the woods was suddenly alive with the crackle and crunch of the undergrowth as whatever it was made its escape.

‘Fuck! It was a man! Garrett, it was a man, didn’t you see him?’

Garrett catapulted to his feet, shoving Kendra. ‘Stay here. Don’t move, Kendra. Gabe –’ he yelled back at the device ‘– call Ellis, and get someone down here, now!’

He grabbed the flashlight from her and tore into the woods, undergrowth slapping at his calves and thighs, brambles catching his jeans. He could hear both Gabe and Kendra calling after him to stay put, but he couldn’t. He just couldn’t. He had only seen movement, but something was definitely there. Something, and if some bastard was after Kendra, he just couldn’t sit meekly and do nothing. Suddenly, the sound of escape in front of him was mirrored by the sound of pursuit behind him, and he knew Kendra had ignored him. He would have shouted at her to go back, but that would only give whoever was out there more information. That would only make him aware that Kendra was there, ready for the grabbing. The hair on the back of his neck prickled and he shoved forward, nearly tripping over exposed roots and uneven ground. A thin branch thwacked him low on the cheek with the force of a whip and he felt warm blood trickle down his jaw. He ignored it and pushed on. He tried hard to concentrate, to hear the sound of Kendra stumbling through the undergrowth behind him and the sound of whoever it was in front growing fainter and then suddenly stopping. The shiver snaked up his spine. He didn’t know if whoever it was had moved out of the woods or if he had stopped, or if he was waiting, waiting for Kendra. He could be anywhere in the pitch black just outside the spastic slash of vision Garrett’s flashlight afforded. And suddenly he couldn’t hear Kendra either. He stopped dead, listening, struggling to breathe quietly while his lungs felt like they’d burst. But he heard nothing ahead of him and nothing behind him. Goddamn it, why couldn’t the woman ever listen? Why couldn’t she stay safe?

It felt like an eternity that he stood there, his lungs bursting from the need of air, his ears straining for the sound of her, for any sound, for any whisper, but there was nothing. At last he crept forward, trying desperately to keep quiet, but twigs crackled and pine straw schussed beneath his feet. It was high summer and the woods were dry. He was desperate to call for her, desperate to know where she was, desperate to know that she was safe.

Suddenly, from behind him there was the bounce, bounce of multiple flashlight beams, and the undergrowth came alive with the crackle and pop of branches and twigs. There was a hand on his shoulder, and before he could brain the owner with the flashlight, a competent male voice said, ‘Security, Mr. Thorne. Go back out of the woods. We’ll take care of this now.’